Marian Hossa had two goals and an assist, and
goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped 22 shots to power the Atlanta Thrashers
to a 6-0 win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.
Slava Kozlov added a goal and two assists for the Thrashers, who
lost a 3-2 shootout to Tampa Bay in their season opener on Thursday
night. Lehtonen, in his second season, earned his fourth career
shutout.
Atlanta opened the scoring on a goal by Jon Sim only 6:54 into
the game, beating Florida goalie Ed Belfour on a 30-foot blast from
the right circle. Bobby Holik made it 2-0 on short-handed goal when
he put a shot between Belfour's legs at the 13:39 mark.
Hossa and Kozlov then took over the scoring in the second period.
Kozlov scored front up close on a perfect pass from Hossa only
1:33 into the period. Hossa then made it 4-0 on a power play at 6:45
when he tipped in a nice pass from Ilya Kovalchuk in front of the
net.
Panthers coach Jacques Martin replaced Belfour with Alex Auld,
who was in goal for Florida's 8-3 season-opening victory over Boston
on Friday night. Belfour had only five saves against the Thrashers,
missing both shots in the second period before being lifted.
Hossa then added his third goal of the season and second of the
night on another power play with a wraparound goal, sneaking it past
Auld at 14:27.
Andy Sutton scored 5:44 into the third period to give the
Thrashers a 6-0 lead.
Lehtonen, limited by injuries to only 39 games last season as a
rookie, made his toughest save with an outstanding stop on a shot
from Todd Bertuzzi at point-blank range in the opening period. He's
6-1 against Florida with two shutouts.
Atlanta, which led the league with 58 power-play goals last
season, had two against Florida.
Notes: Hossa has five points in two games. ... The Thrashers
reassigned goaltender Fred Braithwaite to their Chicago farm club of
the American Hockey League prior to the game. ... The Thrashers, who
matched a team-low 11 shots on goal in their opener, had 14 shots in
the second period alone and finished with 34.